American singer-songwriter and actress Teyana Taylor attends the London premiere for the movie “One Battle After Another” in London on September 16, 2025. (Photo by Katie Collins/Reuters)

A history enthusiast, dressed as a soldier, fights during the re-enactment of Napoleon's famous battle of Austerlitz near the southern Moravian town of Slavkov u Brna December 5, 2015. Hundreds of history enthusiasts gathered near the city of Slavkov before a re-enactment of Napoleon's famous battle of Austerlitz on Saturday to mark its 210th anniversary. (Photo by David W. Cerny/Reuters)

Belgium's Davina Philtjens comforts Italy's Manuela Giugliano sitting on the ground at the end of the Women Euro 2022 group D soccer match between Italy and Belgium at the Manchester City Academy Stadium, in Manchester, England, Monday, July 18, 2022. Belgium won 1-0 to advance to the quarterfinals. (Photo by Jon Super/AP Photo)

A plane battling the Ferguson Fire passes the setting sun in unincorporated Mariposa County Calif., near Yosemite National Park on Sunday, July 15, 2018. (Photo by Noah Berger/AP Photo)

Revellers dressed in mock military garb take part in “Els Enfarinats” food-battle in the southeastern Spanish town of Ibi on December 28, 2022. (Photo by Jaime Reina/AFP Photo)

A Ukrainian soldier inspects a destroyed Russian APC after recent battle in Kharkiv, Ukraine, March 24, 2022. The writing made by Ukrainian soldiers reads: “Not to War”. (Photo by Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo)

Palestinians fleeing Khan Yunis arrive in Rafah with their belongings in a damaged car on February 15, 2024, as battles raged in the sourthern Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (Photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP Photo)

These images, scanned from old glass negatives which had surfaced in northern France, were believed to have been taken by a local amateur photographer in 1916. They showed British and a few Australian soldiers, in formal or informal poses, during or just before the most murderous battle in the history of the British Empire – Battle of the Somme. Who are these British and British Empire soldiers? The identity of the soldiers is, and may always remain, a mystery... (Property of Bernard Gardin/Dominique Zanardi/Joel Scribe/The Independent Magazine)